Rules for Program Comments

CSCI 150

Rules for using comments:

It is important to use comments and indentation to make your programs easy to read and understand. This is particularly true when the programs start to get large and somewhat more complicated.

Program Prologues:
Comments are notes that the programmer writes in English, stating what a particular piece of code does, who wrote it, etc. They are not part of the program that the computer will execute. In Pascal, comments are set apart from the regular code using brackets: {}. Every program you write in this class will have a program prologue that contains the name of the program, your name, the date, the class and section, the assignment or lab number and the purpose of the program. The standard prologue should look as follows:

{program: FairyTale.pas
Author: Brenda Student
Class: CSCI 150, Section 01
Date: 2/19/01
Assignment: Lab 3
Purpose: Create an interesting and unique fairy tale}

Comments on variables:
Each variable declaration should have a comment next to it indicating the purpose of the variable.

{program: Scoobydoo.pas
Author: Brenda Student
Class: CSCI 150, Section 01
Date: 9/6/01
Assignment: Homework 2
Purpose: Solves Mysteries}

program Scoobydoo;

var
	monster: string;    {Name of monster in mystery}
	snacks: integer;    {number of scooby snacks available}
begin

	{Code for main program is here}
		
end. {end Scoobydoo program}

Comments at the beginning and end of major program blocks:
Each procedure or function should have a prologue giving the name purpose and a description of the parameters used in the function or procedure call. Each major function, procedure or program block should have a comment immediately following the end statement indicating the name of the function or program that is just ended. An example follows:

{program: Hephalump.pas
Author: Brenda Student
Class: CSCI 150, Section 01
Date: 3/22/01
Assignment: Homework 5
Purpose: Hunts for and talks to hephalumps}

program hephalump;

procedure hunt( num1 : integer; name : string);
{procedure: hunt
purpose: Find hephalumps and greet them.
parameters: num1 is an integer indicating the number of hephalumps
            name is a string indicating the name of the user}
var
	answer: string;	{What the hephalump says}
begin

	{Code for hunt procedure is here}
	
end; {end hunt procedure}

var
	remark: string;     {What you will say to a hephalump}
	number: integer;    {number of hephalumps}
begin

	{Code for main program is here}
		
end. {end hephalump program}